Carrot, Egg, or Tea

A daughter complained to her father about how hard her life was. She didn’t know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling; it seemed that whenever she solved one problem, a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to his kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on high heat. When they were boiling, he place a carrot in the first one, an egg in the second, and a bag of herb tea in the third, to which he added a teaspoonful of sugar.

In about twenty minutes he turned the burners off. He fished the carrot out and placed it in a bowl. He pulled the egg out and placed it in a bowl. And then he ladled the tea into a bowl. Turning to his daughter, he asked. “What do you see?”

“A carrot, an egg, and tea,” she replied.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrot. She did and noted that it was soft. He then asked her to take the egg and break it. After peeling it, she observed that it was now hard-boiled. Finally, he asked her to sip the tea. She smiled as she smelled its aroma and stated its sweetness. Then she asked, “What’s the point?”

Her father explained that the carrot, egg, and tea had each faced the same adversity—boiling water—but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile; its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But in the boiling water, it had hardened. The tea and sugar, however, were unique—they changed the water.

“Which are you?” the father asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or tea and sugar?”